Various electronic devices, such as liquid crystal displays and printers, employ various electronic parts, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel, an electronic print element (such as a thermal printer head), or an optical sensor.
In general, such electronic parts need to be electrically connected to a circuit board, such as a printed board. A connecting means, for connecting the electronic part to the circuit board, and the electronic part that is connected form an electronic part module. Various connecting means have been conventionally proposed for use, one of which is the pin terminal.
An example of a conventionally known electronic part module using a pin terminal is shown in FIG. 9. (Refer to Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 1-206317.) The liquid crystal display module 100 comprises a liquid crystal panel 101, formed by filling liquid crystal in the space between two glass or film bases, and a pin terminal 80 which is mounted to the liquid crystal panel 101. The pin terminal 80 has a clip-shaped base end portion 80A and a front end portion 80B which extends from the base end portion 80A. The base end portion 80A is mounted to the liquid crystal panel 101 by fitting it to the portion of the liquid crystal panel 101 where the input terminal 102 is formed.
The front end portion 80B of the pin terminal 80 is disposed outwardly of the outer peripheral edge of the liquid crystal panel 101. When the front end portion 80B is joined to the circuit board 103 by soldering, the liquid crystal display module 100, used as the electronic part module, is mounted to the base 103. In the liquid crystal display module 100 using pin terminal 80, the pin terminal 80 can be easily connected by soldering. Therefore, such liquid crystal display modules are, in recent years, becoming widely used.
Liquid crystal display modules are, in general, being widely used as information display devices in various electronic devices, such as portable telephones or small information devices. In order to make such electronic devices easier to carry around, it is necessary to make them smaller. On the other hand, in order to increase the amount of data which can be displayed on the liquid crystal display screen, it is necessary to make the screen larger. Thus, there is a demand for electronic devices in which other parts (such as a speaker if the electronic device is a portable telephone), disposed adjacent to the liquid crystal display module, can be disposed closer to the liquid crystal module.
However, the conventional display module 100 of FIG. 9 cannot respond to this demand. The space at the circuit board 103 must be located at the outer side of the liquid crystal display module 100 in order to allow soldering of the front end portion 80B of the pin terminal 80 to the circuit board 103, so that extra space must be provided at the circuit board 103.
This problem occurs not only in liquid crystal display modules, but also in other types of electronic part modules, such as electronic print element modules and optical sensor modules.
In view of the above-described problem, it is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic part module which allows the use of a minimum amount of space for mounting an electronic part module to a circuit board so that efficient use of space can be realized and an electronic device using such an electronic part module.